Right, after reflecting on the journey home and then having a day with my feet up after all the miles I did on Saturday, Sunday and Monday I now feel ready to chuck in my ten penith.
First off the support was 1st class, from day one to three. I saw no bother, no nastiness and we even cleaned up Trafalgar square for them! Copper I spoke to said he couldn't believe it!
Day of the game we headed into Kilburn to visit some mag friendly bars but were moved on since Man U fans had planted themselves in those pubs so we headed towards Wembley with no hope of finding an easy pint. The fan zone was a disgrace, an hour long que for over priced warm p*ss and was so obviously designed to throttle our alcohol consumption. Just poor management full stop. We got in TGI Fridays though and had a canny sup with some nice people......even bumped into Dwight Gayle who brought his family along.....class act from the lad that
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Game was over all a good start I thought from us, and if we scored that maxi chance in first 5 mins we could have been looking at a different result as the crowd would have roared us on even more. The 2nd goal took the wind out of our sales and I felt the crowd go flat for us which was a shame. As for there 1st goal, free kick or not you have to defend it and we just didn't do it well enough. Looked off side, was off side, nowt you can do when VAR doesn't like you. Own goal, not much Karius could can do as it took a wicked dink to loop over him(Don't think Pope would have done any better tbh).....was going wide though so how Rashford has it I've no idea......I suppose Shearer's Wes Brown OG from 2001 will now be credited back to him following this? Thought not
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2nd Half, positive change with Isak coming on, playing deep to try and and drive the ball further up the pitch and by and large he did that.....but that final 3rd was just missing. Couple of half chances which we needed to take and we just did not. All in all you can see what we need to add. A partner for Bruno in midfield, some one who can be the creative force to unlock that final 3rd for our wingers or wide forwards to latch onto and then a capable/fit striker to bully the back four. Chuck a starting left back and more depth in our center back and wide areas and you have team that might compete a bit more in those situations we saw on Sunday.
Reality check is this time last year we just started winning games and pulling away from the bottom three......twelve month later we are competing for European spot and are at our first major final in over 20 year. Not bad for team that has been cobbled together in three transfer windows when teams don't want to sell to us and some hand me downs from Ashley and Bruce. Besides, that trip was a reconnaissance mission for next season when we go back. Then we'll show the f*ckers why they are right to be scared of us getting some ambition. And as for the Man U support at the end, don't get me started! Half of them beat me back to the Tube! Rant over......lets do this all again next season:).
